OUT-OF-PRINT & RARITIES SELECTED BY LIZARDSON & FRIENDS

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

MacMurrough

MacMurrough (1974)

MacMurrough, or Shades of MacMurrough as they appear to have been known initially, was a trio formed in Ferns Co.Wexford in 1971 by Paul Kavanagh and sisters Mary and Josephine O'Neill. They were a ballad group in the Emmet Spiceland tradition. Between 1972 and 1978 they recorded three albums for Polydor Records which are now highly prized by folk fans.In 1974, now operating under the altered name of MacMurrough, Paul Kavanagh, Mary ONeill and Josephine ONeill released their second album entitled Mac Murrough. Released on Polydor Ireland in 1974 and produced by Donal Lunny of Planxty. Bothy Band and Moving Hearts fame. Originally released by Polydor Ireland in a limited edition of 500 copies, Mac Murrough is an acid folk classic. Featuring lyrical ballads from the English and Irish tradition including a 15th century Latin hymn Deus Meus and the song tradition of their native Wexford provided The Pulshone Fishermen. Celestial male/female harmonies are overlaid with subtle arrangements for guitar, dulcimer, lute, spinet, glockenspiel, tin whistle and bodhran MacMurrough weaves a web of pastoral elgaeic acid folk magic that justified MacMurroughs status as a holy grail.

Tracks:01. The Bailiff's Daughter Of Islington02. Creeping Jane03. Ta Na Baid04. The Poulshone Fishermen05. The Plains Of Waterloo06. A Kiss In The Morning Early07. Deus Meus08. Sweet Jenny Of The Moor09. A Pace Egging Song10. Bold William Taylor11. A Maid Who Sold Her Barley

Second and last LP by Phil Harrison's and Stuart Gordon's traditional British folk outfit, recorded during a four-day session at Bath University just before Christmas in 1976. Classic tunes like "The Drunken Sailor", Paddy Murphy's Wife", "King of the Fairies", "The Masons Apron" and "Merrily Kissed the Quaker" are treated so joyfully you wish you had been there.

I apologize for the rather poor shape of my LP, the person who previously owned it must have enjoyed it just as much as I do. I couldn't do much about the surface noise.

Harrison and Gordon made a new wave pop LP as Shortwave in 1979, then moved to The Korgis where they pretty much replaced Andy Davis. As Foreign Bodies they made the single "Voices" in 1981.

BTW, Shortwaveband's 1975 debut has eluded me for a long time, so if anyone has it to share, I'd be eternally grateful.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Tammles

Tammles ::: Tammles> 192 kbps VBR

Alain Pennec: accordeon, cornemuses, chantMarc Jacquier: guitare, bouzouki, chantPhilippe Janvier: bombardes, flutes, chantJean-Yves Martial: violon, bouzouki, chant•01. Scottish du père Rouxel/Scottish à Jacquot02. D’ou viens-tu pochard d’ivrogne?03. Mélodie vannetaise/Marche pourled04. Hantertdroïde05. Bilbolo06. Dans plinn07. Gavottes/Sweet gavotte/Les lavandiéres08. Entre la riviére et le bois09. Ridées à six temps10. Le Fond de l’art effraie11. An dro•Escalibur BUR 810• #27 • September 1985Melodeon wiz, Alain Pennec, who is also a mean turn on the Northumbrian pipes, came over some years back with guitarist and bouzouki man Marc Jacquier, dit Gegene, and impressed those who saw them. The group is now a quartet, with the addition of Philippe Janvier on bombardes and flute and Jean-Yves Martial on fiddle and bouzouki.Tammles come from the non-Breton speaking, or gallo, regions of Brittany and their music has a distinctly different sound to the Breton norm - even when the bombardes are in full flight. The sound of the independent Breton deterrent is more muted here, blending well with the other instruments as they work jauntily through tunes and dances which include scottisches, a Vannes melody, marches, hanter-dros, an dros, gavottes and ridees.Can there be room for songs? There certainly is, and Tammles really sound as though they are having fun on these tracks. There's not a duffer among then and the production is clean and precise, if a little laid-back (not an uncommon fault with this label, which has since sold out lo someone else).They're top of the tree in Brittany at the momentMick Tems•Tammlespassword: highqualitymp3

Tammles ::: Embarquement immediat> 192 kbps VBR

Alain Pennec: accordéon, cornemuses, bombarde, flute, synthé, chantMarc Jacquier: guitare, synthé, chantPhilippe Janvier: bombardes, sax alto, chantJean-Yves Martial: violon, bouzouki, chant•01. Marche des tailleurs de pierre02. Gavottes03. Trios matelots du port de Brest04. Déridez-vous en 8 temps - ridées05. Les cercliers06. Le chemin du village - an dro/hanter dro07. A Limerzel - tour08. Ballad du petit people09. Embarquement immediate10. Il reste encore à vendre - ridées à 6 temps11. Poule qui chante•1985 • Escalibur BUR 813• #35 • May 1986Tammles' emergence as a force to be reckoned with has been slow but steady, from the days back in the 1970s when multi-instrumentalis Alain Pennec and guitarist Marc Jacquier began using the name, and Embarquement Immediat is an album they can be proud off. Tammles work in the non-Breton speaking field, and their songs are as strong as their runes; they too, are not afraid to mix traditional and technology, Philippe Janvier switching from bombarde to alto sax with equal and interesting effect and Jean-Yves Martial putting swing and subtlety into the fiddle. The repetitive nature of Breton melody gives Tammles the springboard for their hypnotic effect; this is an album for all those who avoid Celtic music of the jig/reel/andro school, for it injects colour and variety into what is already an inspired choice of material. Like a good whisky (or lambic!) it's the result of years of maturing, and those who get hold of fit will savour fit for a long time to come. The title track certainly goes with me to my desert Island.Mick Tems•Embarquement immediatpassword: highqualitymp3

#47 • May 1987 Right from their first record this group has been outstanding in their presentation of French and Breton shanties and sea songs. The group, formed from a co-operative known as Chasse-Maree, consisted at the time of Arnaud Maissonneuve, Benoit Chantran, Bernard Subert, Christian Desnos and the group's leader and driving force, Michel Colleu, who has collected the majority of the material used - songs and tunes from the rich maritime heritage extant around the coast of Britanny. Fiddle, flute, concertina and guitar along with a melodeon (in this case, Christian uses an almost straight tuning to great effect) are often used as accompaniment, and all are excellent musicians as well as fine singers. Bombardes and hurdy-gurdies are unlikely instruments to hearbacking sea songs, but in the hands of the French they blend perfectly with their style of singing - and what a style! Whatever Cabestan do, the maxim seems to be that effort and a feeling for the material are essential. Their precision and spirited renderings make them a joyful listening experience, even if you can’t understand French, because you can feel the 'working power' of the songs.The French, unlike the English, do not have as great a store of shanties, but they make up for this with a fine collection of shore based songs. On the second of these two albums these are supplemented from other sources. John Wright replaces Benoit Chantran, and I suppose after some 16 years of self-exile ha has earned the right to be called French. He brings to the group the Jews harp as well as his own Fiddle talents, and on the former he is an acknowledged authority. In addition, he has taught the lads choruses to John Kanaka and South Australia, and credible versions are turned in of both. It is nice to hear the Cape Cod Girls variant of the latter, although John seems at times hesitant with his lead, but fit does not unduly detract from the song, whereas John Kanaka for the first time to my knowledge, is attempted with hitches! I wonder what Stan Hugill will think of the effort; fit is certainly strange, but seems to grow on you.I particularly liked what I will call the Breton finger dance song, here called En Anglezed Boneteu Ru, loosely translated to become The Good Angel's Bonnet. The co-ordination of the medley where the melodeon slips keys and slides, is really done to perfection and leads into the song so well. The Breton group, Truzerion, make a speciality of this type of song, often sung in dialects no longer in current use, where the dancers traditionally moved in a circle with a delicate linking of little fingers - or sometimes arms round shoulders, because these dances last for an hour.I can do no more than say that Cabestan are by far the best sea songsters I have ever heard. Both these records come aver well, as if they vere live recordings, the technical side is excellent, and thewords are included in both cases. Do yourselves a favour and get both, and if slip not satisfied, then look for the earlier anthology series when the group was much largerChris Roche

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Perlinpinpin folc ::: Al biule

Folk roots #40 • Oct. 1986 Apologies in advance to experts on musical and linguistic peculiarities of the French provinces. This seems to be songs and tunes (ancient and modern) from Southwest France, the liner giving the Iyrics in both French and something(s) else. The tentative plural is because there seem to be various kinds of not-French used: the sleeve refers to "la langue Occitane", one song is avowedly in Gascon and in print some look like Franco-Spanish hybrids (reasonable given their geographical origins). The group's a five-piece, acoustic save for bass guitar, and employing a Blowzabellan mix of instruments. Like many French bands they can sound quite orìental/exotic at times and, were it not for the heavily-fortified language barrier, somewhat embarrassing. The modern lyrics are a bit in the 1970s sensitive singer-songwriter vein, but without the bilingual sleeve and a dictionary this isn’t much of a worryThe title track To the poplar is by one Christian Rapin. who is in the habit of conversing with trees: "They spoke to me. I understood" he confides on the sleeve. Anais is (I think) about the effect of a woman's perfume on the narrator. Translation is evidently a problem as the French lyric has two more verses than the original, one of which commences "She climbs into my nostrils". The music is in best French (semi-)electric folk style with sinuous bass and percussion underlying accordion and buzzing reeds. Entre duos cadièras is about a rural bourgeois – isn’t that self-contradicting? - who has "conserved the mother tongue", unlike most of his counterparts. The song is blessed with a gently compulsive rhythm and some restrained piping, near Northumbrian in tone. Banbulok dantza is a set of three trad. tunes from the southern Basque country starting with Biribilketa, a fairly raucous march over tricky percussion (quite how you could march to it is debatable) and a fandango. The last tune Arin-Arin is an accordeon piece liberally plastered with silly birdcalls and sounds like a forerunner of a Cajun tune. Ali these would be well worth nicking.Epistòla a un poeta sounds great: clone harmonies over a neat bass line, fiddle and rattling percussion. But ... it's about how tough it is being a poet writing in the Gascon dialect, a minority problem. Next is a dramatic fiddle/birdcall/tabla (or similar) Indian-sounding intro gradually augmented with stabbing pipe interjections. In comes solo voice dramatically intoning "heat a little fat or oil in a frying pan and add two finely-chopped cloves of garlic"; the verses over, it evolves into quite a rocky tune. This is much the best singing recipe I've heard and without the translation you'd think it was about something dead serious.Lo batalha d'Achos is the one trad. song, done in unaccompanied harmony and dealing with a conflict between two mountain villages: °to gain a firm footing they removed their clogs". Finally there's a set of two trad. Tunes from the Landes area. The first is a round that could be straight off Pyewackett's Seven To Midnight, low register clarinet over repetitive xylophone gradually joined by bass and other instruments. The succeeding bransle is another accordion and birdnoises job (see above).Were they sung in English, I don’t think I'd give most of these tracks house room on account of the somewhat over-poetic lyrics. Thanks to minority languages though, you can enjoy this for its overall sound of fairly straightforward vocals and intricate, but not gratuitously so, instrumental arrangements. If you like the generai French sound, this is worth trying.Nick Beale•Alain Cadeillan: voix, cornemuse, hautbois, percussionPatrick Cadeillan: voix, accordéon diatonique, percussionJean-Pierre Cazade: voix, basse, mandoloncelle, bambulek Christian Lanau: voix, violon, percussionJean Luc Madier: mandole, violoncelle , percussion• 01 Anais02 Entre duas cadièras03 Al biule04 Bambulak dantza05 Epistòla a un poèta06 Lo torin a l'ivronha 07 La batalha d'Achòs 08 Roue libre•1985 • Auvidis AV 4520•Al biulepassword: highqualitymp3

Still Light

Kirill said...Ive just finished mastering a psych folk record I did, a collaboration between vocalist/songwriter Lucy Hague, London based artist Sand Snowman, and myself. This 40 minutes of music was much inspired by many of the artists that are written about and featured on Time Has Told Me.

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Spud

A Silk Purse (1975)

An Irish folk-rock group whose albums are bound to be of interest to Celtic music lovers. Their debut album includes a competent version of the well-known traditional song "Blackleg Miner" amongst others. The third album comes with a lyric sheet. By this time of its release, O'Connor had been replaced by Dave Gaynor (drums) and multi-instrumentalist Ken Wilson also joined. This is generally regarded as their best album, a sorta good-time folk offering, but they've been dormant since.